Thursday, October 22, 2015

Hank Haint's Blackout

Man, when it comes to a label that has a knack for getting
great one-man bands, nothing beats Voodoo Rhythm Records. Case in point? Hank Haint. He even covers an old GG Allin song (“Don’t Talk to Me”)! How could you possibly go wrong with this guy?

On May 25, 2012, Blackout
was released on an unsuspecting world. You,
the listener, is first subjected to “Keep on Walking.” You think, “This can’t possibly be a one-man
band.” You are, of course, wrong. Just like the times you thought there wasn’t
a cop around and that one time you swore she was 18.

There are 12 other songs (including the Allin cover) that
will only serve to strengthen your disbelief.
When you think about the fact that he only started working as a solo act
five years earlier, you will chastise yourself for wasting the last half decade
doing … what? Not this, that’s for
sure.

Blues trash with a punk attitude is how this music has been
described. That is about as accurate a
description as one will get. It’s too
raw for the “hip” crowd., and too obscure for mainstream music lover. It’s in that void to be enjoyed only by the
daring and the lucky.

Of course, this may not be your thing at all. You may lean more toward pop or, Heaven
forbid, hip hop. You may be wondering
what the fuss is about. It’s one guy,
after all. How hard can that be? He goes into the studio, lays a track,
switches instruments and lays another track.
Well, he performs live, too. And
not with a backing band. One man. Many instruments. The touch of death!

My only complaint? I
would’ve moved “Pissing in the Sink” to the last track. It is the perfect way to end an album. As it stands, “Untitled,” the last song,
isn’t a horrible way to end it (and one can easily see why it is the last
song), but “Pissing in the Sink” would have been the feather in this mighty
cap. If that is the only complaint one
can muster, you know it is a solid release.